Kisses

After being abused by their dysfunctional families, pre-teen neighbors Dylan and Kylie decide to run away from home on Christmas Eve. The two set off in search of Dylan's brother who had made his own escape two years prior. At first Dublin is a colorful kaleidoscope of wonder and mystery, but as the night wears on, the city takes on a darker character, and the two must rely on the kindness of strangers and Bob Dylan's wisdom to persevere. After that night on the streets of inner-city Dublin, the children's dreams have dissolved and they decide to return home, but only after swearing eternal friendship

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Pre-teen Dylan and his sort-of girlfriend Kylie lead a pretty grim life in their rundown housing project—he’s subjected to daily doses of physical and emotional abuse, she’s facing far worse. Hopping a ride on a canal barge they decide to leave it all behind and head for the bright lights of Dublin where Dylan hopes to be reunited with his long lost brother. Yet another riff on a “babes in the woods” theme wherein a pair of unhappy children trade one miserable existence for another before realizing everyplace is just like home. The two talented leads do have an onscreen charisma which renders their (barely intelligible) dialogue both natural and believably raw while their behaviour is pretty much what you’d expect from a pair of clueless runaways. Writer/director Lance Daly shows some ingenuity especially in his decision to film early scenes of domestic misery in stark B&W then gradually tinting things to full colour as Dylan and Kylie get further away from home. But the mean streets of Dublin never get quite mean enough and our little protagonists’ meandering adventures don’t quite gel into anything more meaningful than a string of inoffensive “Kids gone Wild” scenarios. Finally, a drawn out closing sequence delivered in relentless slow-motion looks grand but says nothing new.